Manzanitas are truly rivals of the current divas of the bonsai shows, the collected junipers. As a matter of fact, they are junipers in Technicolor with their lovely trunk and leaf color. There is only one teeny little insignificant problem.

Conventional wisdom flatly states that manzanitas cannot be grown as bonsai. This pessimistic view about manzanitas as bonsai originated a number of years ago. Many were collected from the foothills and in spite of all possible (and some not so possible) variants of soil composition and growing conditions, they all died. Because of the great potential of manzanitas as bonsai it was felt that it was worthwhile to look once again at these wonderful plants. As a result, an article extolling the potential virtues of Manzanitas was published in the newsletter about a year ago.

 There is no question that establishing collected Manzanitas is a severe challenge and one that is not likely to have a happy ending. But wait, you shouldn’t give up just yet. There is more. There are two questions here that are totally different. How do you establish collected manzanitas and, secondly, can you grow manzanitas as bonsai? Due to the bad publicity the plants have received, the second question has not been really addressed by the bonsai community due to the dictate that you “can’t grow Manzanitas as bonsai” stemming from the poor success with collected plants.

Let’s look at what the manzanita family has to offer. Botanists tell us that there about fifty species of manzanitas native to California and they fall very roughly into three groups, low mat forming plants, shrubs and small trees. Several of the varieties grown commercially are hybrids, either occurring naturally or accidentally produced from cultivated landscape plants. There are many cases in the horticultural world of hybrid vigor. When this happens two different species can be difficult to grow, but the hybrid of the two is much easier to grow. Between growth styles of species and the addition of hybrids, there are a lot of manzanitas to choose from.

 Since nursery grown manzanitas are already established in pots, it was speculated in the newsletter article a year ago that it is possible that they could well continue to easily grow as bonsai. Nursery grown manzanitas readily grow as landscape plants in the Bay Area, so local conditions of sun and rainfall are fine. Further, these plants are pretty tolerant of soil composition as long as it is well drained. All in all, Bay Area climate and bonsai soil should present no problems for the culture of manzanitas as bonsai.

Inspired by the speculation that manzanitas might, in fact, be easy to grow from nursery stock, an experiment was begun a year ago to see whether the speculation in the newsletter article was true. A selection of eleven different manzanita species were purchased in gallon cans. They were bare-rooted and potted in bonsai pots. Soil used was equal mixture of pumice, lava and akadama. The pots were then placed in full sun and the plants were occasionally fertilized with full strength Miracle Grow. As of a year later, the plants are all happily growing which clearly indicates that you can, in fact, grow manzanitas as bonsai.

 Some preliminary observations can be seen with these plants. The mat formers are probably limited to be grown as cascades. Branches are low and level with the ground. Perhaps the branches can be wired up to present a more tree-like structure, but this appears to be a struggle at best.

The shrub, and particularly the tree forms send out long branches that can be easily wired while young, but quickly become so hard that they are intractable, so repositioning them later is not easily possible. Hence, delaying wiring the long branches is not a good idea. Also, the young branches rapidly grow thicker and wire scars can form sooner that you might expect, so the wire should not be left on the tree for long.

The horticultural literature tells us that the manzanitas can be shaped by pinching the new growth, and that bare branches do no readily bud back. Long branches that are cut back near the end of the branch sent out new branches close to the cut end, giving a “tassel” look to the branch, suggesting that you need to cut back to where you want branching to take place.

Manzanitas which fall into the small tree group generally have larger leaves, and as a result will probably be best as relatively large bonsai so the leaves are in proper scale.

One of the charms of manzanitas is that many, if not most have peeling bark. The bark shreds can be easily knocked off when handling the trees. There is a lot more to be learned about the care and feeding of these plants, not the least of which is whether they will continue to flourish year after year.

Manzanitas are available from most nurseries, but the stock is frequently only the mat formers. Berkeley Horticultural Nursery has had a nice selection of manzanitas in the past. Other species are also available from native plant sales. The Botanical Garden at University of California at Berkeley has a number of species for sale from time to time.

As a general statement, starting material of most plant species growing in gallon cans is two or three years at a minimum away from being a presentable bonsai. The upside is that manzanita nursery stock has the potential of ultimately being outstanding bonsai. For someone with patience and a willingness to explore an uncharted area, there is no better place to look for new and exciting bonsai material than at manzanita nursery stock now that the preliminary observation shows that they can, in fact, happily grow in bonsai pots.What are manzanitas and why do they matter? Manzanitas are shrubs that grow pretty much all over California. One probably notices them particularly in the foothills of the Sierra where a single species is abundant. They have red berry-like fruits which lead to the common name. Those of you who are linguists recognize the name manzanita as Spanish for little apples which is just what the fruit looks like. Those of our dear readers who are botanically inclined know that the Manzanitas are in the genus Arctostaphylos which, of course, is Greek for bear berry because the bears love to eat the little fruits when they are ripe.

 Manzanitas are all that you could ask for in a fine bonsai. In addition to lovely fruit they have pink or white flowers in the spring and they have trunks with a lot of movement. The bark is naturally a deep reddish-brown and the foliage makes a beautiful contrast to the trunk because it is a soft gray green. Best of all, because of their abundance, they are easy to find and collect.

Manzanitas are truly rivals of the current divas of the bonsai shows, the collected junipers. As a matter of fact, they are junipers in Technicolor with their lovely trunk and leaf color. There is only one teeny little insignificant problem.

Conventional wisdom flatly states that manzanitas cannot be grown as bonsai. This pessimistic view about manzanitas as bonsai originated a number of years ago. Many were collected from the foothills and in spite of all possible (and some not so possible) variants of soil composition and growing conditions, they all died. Because of the great potential of manzanitas as bonsai it was felt that it was worthwhile to look once again at these wonderful plants. As a result, an article extolling the potential virtues of Manzanitas was published in the newsletter about a year ago.

 There is no question that establishing collected Manzanitas is a severe challenge and one that is not likely to have a happy ending. But wait, you shouldn’t give up just yet. There is more. There are two questions here that are totally different. How do you establish collected manzanitas and, secondly, can you grow manzanitas as bonsai? Due to the bad publicity the plants have received, the second question has not been really addressed by the bonsai community due to the dictate that you “can’t grow Manzanitas as bonsai” stemming from the poor success with collected plants.

Let’s look at what the manzanita family has to offer. Botanists tell us that there about fifty species of manzanitas native to California and they fall very roughly into three groups, low mat forming plants, shrubs and small trees. Several of the varieties grown commercially are hybrids, either occurring naturally or accidentally produced from cultivated landscape plants. There are many cases in the horticultural world of hybrid vigor. When this happens two different species can be difficult to grow, but the hybrid of the two is much easier to grow. Between growth styles of species and the addition of hybrids, there are a lot of manzanitas to choose from.

 Since nursery grown manzanitas are already established in pots, it was speculated in the newsletter article a year ago that it is possible that they could well continue to easily grow as bonsai. Nursery grown manzanitas readily grow as landscape plants in the Bay Area, so local conditions of sun and rainfall are fine. Further, these plants are pretty tolerant of soil composition as long as it is well drained. All in all, Bay Area climate and bonsai soil should present no problems for the culture of manzanitas as bonsai.

Inspired by the speculation that manzanitas might, in fact, be easy to grow from nursery stock, an experiment was begun a year ago to see whether the speculation in the newsletter article was true. A selection of eleven different manzanita species were purchased in gallon cans. They were bare-rooted and potted in bonsai pots. Soil used was equal mixture of pumice, lava and akadama. The pots were then placed in full sun and the plants were occasionally fertilized with full strength Miracle Grow. As of a year later, the plants are all happily growing which clearly indicates that you can, in fact, grow manzanitas as bonsai.

 Some preliminary observations can be seen with these plants. The mat formers are probably limited to be grown as cascades. Branches are low and level with the ground. Perhaps the branches can be wired up to present a more tree-like structure, but this appears to be a struggle at best.

The shrub, and particularly the tree forms send out long branches that can be easily wired while young, but quickly become so hard that they are intractable, so repositioning them later is not easily possible. Hence, delaying wiring the long branches is not a good idea. Also, the young branches rapidly grow thicker and wire scars can form sooner that you might expect, so the wire should not be left on the tree for long.

The horticultural literature tells us that the manzanitas can be shaped by pinching the new growth, and that bare branches do no readily bud back. Long branches that are cut back near the end of the branch sent out new branches close to the cut end, giving a “tassel” look to the branch, suggesting that you need to cut back to where you want branching to take place.

Manzanitas which fall into the small tree group generally have larger leaves, and as a result will probably be best as relatively large bonsai so the leaves are in proper scale.

One of the charms of manzanitas is that many, if not most have peeling bark. The bark shreds can be easily knocked off when handling the trees. There is a lot more to be learned about the care and feeding of these plants, not the least of which is whether they will continue to flourish year after year.

Manzanitas are available from most nurseries, but the stock is frequently only the mat formers. Berkeley Horticultural Nursery has had a nice selection of manzanitas in the past. Other species are also available from native plant sales. The Botanical Garden at University of California at Berkeley has a number of species for sale from time to time.

As a general statement, starting material of most plant species growing in gallon cans is two or three years at a minimum away from being a presentable bonsai. The upside is that manzanita nursery stock has the potential of ultimately being outstanding bonsai. For someone with patience and a willingness to explore an uncharted area, there is no better place to look for new and exciting bonsai material than at manzanita nursery stock now that the preliminary observation shows that they can, in fact, happily grow in bonsai pots.